Hummingbird (2013)

A slightly more serious, character-driven turn for The Transporter and Crank star Jason Statham, who plays a homeless, alcoholic war vet seeking redemption for a previous incident in Helmand province, Afghanistan, for which he escapes a court-martial. He breaks into a luxury Soho flat to rebuild his life, steam-cleaning the owner’s designer suits and driving his Mercedes. The film is full of mixed morals. He escapes a violent past by becoming a hired street thug for a London-based Chinese gang, causing even more carnage by smashing up their enemies and helping their drug trade. He eventually uses their connections to hunt down a city boy who has been killing prostitutes. He is shown to be haunted by hallucinations which he combats through alcohol, and what initially looks like a journey into the effects of PTSD quickly looses its nerve and jumps into standard Statham head-cracking territory, never fully reconciling with the big issues at the heart of the film. The story also centres around his relationship with a Polish nun who is going through her own crisis of faith, but their stilted kinship never becomes believable. However, it is refreshing to see Statham reveal his tender side, and the film does enough to suggest he could make a good dramatic lead one day.